Nic Cage's Bad Lieutenant Is Not Going Straight To DVD

This shouldn’t even be a story but there seems to be confusion where the release of Nic Cage’s new movie Bad Lietenant: Port of Call New Orleans is concerned. Earlier today several different blogs ran stories with headlines like “Bad Lieutenant Headed Straight To DVD!”, prompting people to assume that First Look Studios was canceling plans to release it in theaters and simply shoving it out on Home Video. They assumed that because, of course, that’s what “straight to DVD” means. But that’s not the case at all, even though it makes a catchy headline.

Those misleading headlines originated from a rather innocent story on Blu-Ray.com where they’ve announced that the film is coming to the Blu-Ray format in February. Here’s exactly what they said, just to erase any confusion: “First Look Studios is set to release 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' on Blu-ray on February 23, 2010. This Werner Herzog movie starring Nicolas Cage, loosely inspired on the controversial 1992 crime drama directed by Abel Ferrara, will only get a limited release in November before going to home video.”

Note that they don’t say it won’t get a theatrical release, only that it’s getting a limited theatrical release. That is by the way, all that’s ever been planned for the film, as far as I know. First Look never promised a wide release and the film, despite the presence of Nic Cage, isn’t really the kind of megaplex flick that you’d expect to get a wide release anyway. It’s an arthouse movie, directed by Werner Herzog who has made a career out of not being a commercial director. This isn’t National Treasure 3. So the only story here is that if you’re unable to see Bad Lieutenant in theaters when it’s released November 20th, then you’ll get a shot at watching it on Blu-Ray in February. It is absolutely not going straight to DVD. Move along.